Lucky Streak Read Free

So, disappearing from this casino sounded like a good idea to Amber right now. Doing it in the middle of a group of cops was even better. And spending time with her sexy savior was like a cherry on top of an already overly frosted cake.
    â€œBesides, how can I continue to hit on you if you don’t come along?” he asked, his breath warm against her cheek, his musky cologne making her weak in the knees.
    He had the most potent effect on her and she couldn’t resist his rationale or his charm. Given her circumstances, a new man in her life was the lastthing she needed, but the pounding excitement in her veins told her this couldn’t be wrong.
    â€œLead the way,” she said, hooking her arm in his.
    A surprised but pleased look in his eye, Mike led her over to his friends. He introduced her to his partner, Dan Sullivan, and his new wife, Natalie, whose wedding last night they were currently celebrating. Mike ticked off half a dozen more names and Amber took a mental photograph of each.
    People, places, names and numbers were her specialty, making her not just good at her former job as a concierge, but one of the best. She wasn’t overly modest, she just understood that her photographic memory was an asset in the service industry. Charisma was another and she’d inherited hers from her father.
    The expected stab of pain settled in her chest as she recalled the vibrant charmer Sam Brenner had been, compared to the often vacant shell he’d become once his illness had progressed. Amber didn’t share her father’s last name because he’d wanted to protect her from his con-artist lifestyle. Since taking her mother’s maiden name had helped memorialize a woman Amber would never know, she’d always been honored to have it. And it had certainly made her father happy. At least until his illness had taken hold.
    She and her father had always been close, which was why she’d decided to leave her grandparentsbehind and go on the road with Sam while he did his cons. She’d gotten her GED in place of traditional high school diploma, and talked the head concierge of the Crown Chandler Hotels in Vegas into taking her on as her assistant and teach her the ropes at the age of eighteen. Amber had traveled the country, viewing all the hotels in the chain and ultimately earning the head job in Beverly Hills at the unheard-of age of twenty-one.
    She’d remained there for three years, until six months ago, when Amber had moved back from L.A. to her father’s Vegas apartment in order to care for him. She’d taken a job as a cocktail waitress at the bar of an old friend’s, who’d promised her time off if her father had an emergency. That was something she couldn’t count on even if she transferred to a Vegas hotel. Yet after only three months of living with her father, she’d had to step up her plan to find him a decent nursing home. The day she’d come home from work to find Sam had wandered off was the day she knew things had to change.
    The first few facilities she’d viewed, homes she could have afforded on a concierge’s salary, had been seedy dumps she wouldn’t even consider leaving her father in. Old buildings run by people who clearly weren’t compensated enough to handle elderly-patient care; the smells and sights had left Amber close to tears. She knew then she had no choice but to find a way to raise big money quickly,and often, so she could afford a higher standard of living for her father in a privately owned facility.
    That night she’d gone in search of Marshall. Within a few days, he’d found them their first game and she’d taken home enough cash to ensure her father was looked after properly.
    Shaking off the memory, she refocused on Mike and his friends. Mike had wrapped his arm around her shoulders for each introduction and everyone she met took his body language as a cue to welcome her into their group warmly and